


Earth's Mightiest Hunger Games

by Amelia Abernathy (authr2b)



Category: Captain America (Movies), Fantastic Four (Movieverse), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies), Wolverine (Movies), X-Men (Movies)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-15
Updated: 2015-09-05
Packaged: 2018-02-09 00:30:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 17,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1962078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/authr2b/pseuds/Amelia%20Abernathy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Hunger Games has reached it's 200th event, much to the dismay of President Fury, and, to mark the occasion, four tributes from each district have been chosen to attend the Games. Many of the tributes find that they have to chose between winning themselves, or helping their loved ones make it out of the arena alive.</p>
<p>But another twist is introduced during the Games that changes the attitudes of many of the Tributes. </p>
<p>Let the 200th Hunger Games begin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Eighth Quarter Quell

THE CAPITOL

President Fury sat in his living room, his younger daughter napping in his lap. He watched as the children from District One filed into the square. He didn’t like the Games, one of the first things he’d done when he took office twenty-five years before was suggest that the games be canceled, this idea was trampled, the protests agaist him were so violent, that, a month before he gave up on this, he lost an eye to a particularly avid fan of the games.

The one compromise made was that the Children at least reach the age of fourteen before having their names entered in the reaping, and that those who submitted their names extra times received more food for their bravery. 

Of course, the children from District One had been trained. He had thought to fight against that, but wanted to keep his other eye. 

The typical video was played, and the Escort announced what the twist for this, the 200th quarter quell, would be. An extra pair of boys and girls would once again be picked.   
Fury had pointed out that, a century and a half ago, the quarter quell was the exact same, but the Head Gamemaker insisted that nobody would care since it had been so long.

The escort, a young woman by the name of Jean Grey, pulled a two slips of paper out of the large glass bowl that rested near the microphone. A name was called, and an older girl volunteered, introducing herself as Sif, and the name Emma Frost was called and a nervous younger girl made her way to the stage. Fury had seen this before, she would turn out to be every bit as dangerous as her companion.

The two boys were called and two older boys, Logan and Fandral volunteered, and just like that, the first reaping was over with.

 

DISTRICT TWO

Thor Odinson stood at the very back of the crowd, his chest puffed out. He had been the boy picked to volunteer at the reaping, beating his friend, Volstagg. His District’s Escort, Maria Hill, took the stage. His heart began to race as the video played and Maria announce that there would be four Tributes. He barely registered Yukio and Mariko volunteering. Then he heard his name called. 

He was momentarily struck dumb, he’d expected to volunteer, but after the moment passed, he made his way to the front and took his place next to the girls.   
He beamed down at his two friends. Maria opened the slip of paper, and called, “Loki Odinson.” And his heart stopped. His younger brother was standing at the front a look of panic on his face.

“Loki, dear, you need to come onto the stage.” Loki slowly made his way to the stage. Thor tried to make eye contact with Volstagg, he had to volunteer, he couldn’t let Loki go with them. But when Maria asked if there were any volunteers, both Hogun, and Volstagg remained silent.

At that point they were all sent into rooms to say their goodbyes. Once in the room, Loki started to shake. He was only fourteen, and had not been trained well enough to go into the games. Thor pulled his brother close. “It’ll be alright, it’ll be alright.” But he knew it wouldn’t be, only one victor was allowed, meaning either he, or his brother would come out alive, not both.

Their parents came in, and pulled them to separate sides of the room. Thor’s father shoved a ring into his hand, he knew the ring well, he’d asked his father many times over the years if it could be his when he was older.

“Thor, listen. Take care of yourself. You need to come out of this alive. If it means letting Loki fend for himself, so be it. take him into the cornucopia, he’s guaranteed to get killed there, and it wouldn’t even be your fault. Do what it takes to make sure you’re the one to come home.” His father clapped him on the shoulder and walked over to Loki. 

His mother scurried up to him, her eyes red and puffy. She pulled him into a tight hug. “Take care of him, try to keep him alive. And you try to keep alive. I know it’s impossible, but I need both of you to come home. I love you.” 

 

THE CAPITOL

Fury’s daughter had woken up during the last part of District Two’s reaping and begged Fury to play pony with her, and he was on his hands and knees when the third reaping   
started. 

“Sweetheart, daddy needs to watch this.” 

“No! You’re a pony!”

Fury sighed and continued to crawl around the living room, catching glimpses of the reaping as it occurred. He stopped, much to his daughter’s dislike, and watched the names being called, and stayed long enough to see Jane Foster and Elizabeth Ross represent the girls, and Anthony Stark and Bruce Banner represent the boys. 

 

A series of events unfolded afterwards that meant he was unable to watch the remaining reapings, the highlights of which included his daughter slipping off his back and busting her head open on the fireplace, his wife yelling at him for not being more careful, and a long trip to the hospital. He’d managed to get a message through to the Head Gamemaker, and a package waited for him on his coffee table when he returned home. He got comfortable on the couch, where his wife had informed him he’d be sleeping that night, and watched the condensed version of the reaping, which consisted the names of the children called.

He noticed that most of the volunteering belonged to District One, and many younger children were sent to their deaths, like the young boy and girl, Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff from District Four. Most of the other districts seemed to have decided that if they weren’t chosen, they weren’t going to bother, until the video arrived at the reaping of District Twelve. The first young woman looked like she’d do well, though she didn’t even look like she was old enough to be in the reaping, Darcy Lewis had a hard and determined look to her. The second girl, a pretty girl named Peggy took the stage, she glared at the camera’s with regal disdain.

What caught him was the first boy, James Barnes, because next to his name was the word ‘volunteer’. He was followed by a rather scrawny boy name Steven Rogers. He flipped around his television until he found one that was playing the reaping. He waited as the girls were, slowly, called. The Escort then picked up two slips of paper for the boys, and read “Steven Rogers.” The other boy, James, volunteered before the smaller boy could move. And then, as if fate were determined to see the sickly boy dead, the name Steven Rogers was called once more.

Fury sighed and turned off the television and reclined back. As he closed his eyes, the faces of the forty-eight tributes floated around in his mind. The faces of the younger and smaller children stuck out in his mind. However, his last thoughts before he drifted off were not of the two boys from District Twelve, but of Loki Odinson from District Two, and the look of mingled dismay and terror on his and his brother’s face.


	2. The Tributes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter begins shortly after the Reaping in District two, going back in time a few hours from when Chapter One ended.

DISTRICT TWO TRIBUTE TRAIN 

It took them an hour to leave District Two. The crowds made their progress slow, they kept wanting to say good bye and good luck to the tributes. Loki slumped into a chair, wiping tears from his eyes, he hadn’t quit crying since he’d said goodbye to his mother. Thor sat down next to him and tried to give Loki a comforting smile. 

“We’ll get through this, somehow.” Thor said firmly. Loki smiled, if Thor thought they could, then there must have been a really good chance.

“Oh please,” Yukio said in a clipped voice. “There can only be one winner, and his chances are about as good as the chances of a kid from District Eleven.” She smirked down at Loki, and he became very nervous. 

“Let’s be generous.” Mariko said as she took a seat next to her cousin. “Loki will last just as long as us so long as Thor’s around.” Thor nodded.

“And if I have my way, he’ll be the one making it out.” Thor said with a threatening glance at Yukio. Loki’s heart sank. He wanted to be able to go home with his brother, not alone. 

“Well, why don’t you all think about making it past the first day before you talk about winning?” Maria said from behind the girls. Her father had been a victor from District Two about forty years before, and her mother had been a Capitol girl, so she’d been able to get out of the reaping, and was nearly as useful as a Mentor.

“She’s got the right of things.” Their mentor said, trailing along behind her. “I watched the First Reaping, both boys had Victors for parents, and will have been training since they were able to walk. You’ll have to get them out of the running before you can even begin to think about winning.” Thor nodded.

Heimdall took a seat next to Thor and tuned into the reaping, just in time to watch the District Three tributes be chosen.

 

DISTRICT THREE TRIBUTE TRAIN

Tony was so distracted by his father’s parting words that he was shocked when he found himself sitting on the train, the two girls looking at him expectantly.

“What?” he asked, and Jane sighed patiently.

“What’s your token? You’ve been clutching at it since we got to the car.” She repeated.

“Oh,” he looked down and unclasped his hand to reveal a stone medallion with wire wrapped around it in an intricate pattern. “It’s a necklace my mother gave my dad when he was a tribute.” He wondered where she’d found a rock so perfectly round, and he traced the lines that covered it. they formed a triangle in the middle surrounded by perfectly shaped rectangles around it. 

“That’s sweet.” Betty commented, fingering the braided wire bracelet that was a little too big for her wrist. “I whipped this up while I was waiting. I wanted something to remind me of home.” Tony nodded and looked at Bruce, his best friend. 

“How ‘bout your dad? What did he give you?” Bruce snorted.

“Please, Phil felt bad for me and slipped me his lucky ring before we got in the car. My dad didn’t even show up.” they sat in silence as the train began to move, and their mentor, Phil Coulson, took a seat at the bar. 

“Eat as much as you can between now and the games. You need to get some fat on you to live off in case you can’t get a hold on food.” He said quietly. Nobody moved. At the moment they all felt like they were going to vomit. 

“Phil,” Jane looked timidly over to their mentor. “How high would you say our chances are at the moment?” Phil looked them all over.

They’d all come from the Victor’s village and had known Phil for most of their lives. None of them thought it was a coincidence that they were all picked for the same games.  
“Based off of what I saw from District One and Two alone, very low.”

 

DISTRICT SEVEN TRIBUTE TRAIN

Susan Storm stomped onto the train, absolutely furious. Not at her name being pulled from the bowl, she had a huge family and had put her name in almost ten times a year, so at seventeen it was no small wonder that her name had popped up. She was furious that her brother, who’d only had his name in twice, and her boyfriend, who came from a merchant family and had never had to put his name in extra times, had both been picked. 

Johnny, however seemed to think it was the best thing in the world.

“Dude, I’m so gonna kick Career ass!” he cried enthusiastically, looking towards a very green Reed. 

Susan shot a look that could kill at her brother. “You’re not going to be able to, these careers have trained their entire lives. You’re just some kid from the bad part of District Seven.” She could barely keep herself from yelling at her brother. It wasn’t right that two people that she loved were going to the Capitol with her. And she knew that there were only a few choices available to her. 

Either she went home, her brother went home, or the love of her life went home. 

 

DISTRICT TWELVE TRIBUTE TRAIN

Steve glared at Bucky. His best friend tossed his small painted ball into the air over and over. 

“There’s no use looking at me like that.” Bucky said, nonchalantly. “You would’ve gone to the Capitol whether I’d volunteered or not. At least this way we won’t starve to death in the Seam.” The beautiful Peggy sat across from Steve, observing them both with mild interest. 

“You could have done better than me if you’d stayed in District Twelve.” Steve grunted. “Could’ve married the mayor’s daughter.” Bucky snorted.

“Yeah right. That prim and proper girl that looked like she had bad fish shoved under her nose?” Peggy glared at Bucky.

“That’s my little sister you’re talking about.” She informed them calmly. He shrugged.

“Either way, I’m with you till the end of the line, buddy.” Steve wanted to smile and punch Bucky at the same time.

“Okay. Eww with the mushy nonsense.” Darcy said for the first time. “Does anyone know where the food is? I’m starving.”

 

DISTRICT TWO TRIBUTE TRAIN

Thor sat on his bed, leaning against the wall, thinking about the ways that he was going to protect his little brother when Loki walked through the wall wearing pajamas that were almost too big for his small frame.

“So you can’t sleep either?” he asked timidly. Thor shook his head and patted the bed next to him. Loki quickly crossed the room and took his place next to Thor. “I’m scared.” He whimpered. 

“Me too.” Thor admitted. “But we need to get over that and we need to survive. I’m gonna make sure you make it as long as possible.” Loki had started shaking again.

“Are- are we really going to have to kill people?” he asked. Thor nodded.

“Yeah, but you can leave that to me. Honestly, if I had my way, I’d shove you up in a tree and keep you there until everyone else was dead. But they’d probably make killer squirrels go after you or something like that.”

For the first time that day, Loki laughed. “Killer squirrels?” Thor laughed and ruffled Loki’s hair.

“You get what I’m saying.” Loki beamed up at him through his mop of black hair.

“So, it sounds like you’ve got a plan. Are we gonna team up with the girls?” Thor shook his head.

“No. Mariko and Yukio will act like they’re our friends, but they’ll end up turning on us while we’re sleeping.” Loki nodded before lightly punching Thor in the arm and climbing off the bed. 

“Night.” He said quietly and shuffled out of the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you couldn't understand my horrible description, Tony's token is supposed to look like the arc reactor.


	3. The Parade

Thor and Loki stood at the window early the next morning as their train pulled into the station. The crowds of Capitol citizens screamed and waved at them as their train slowed to a smooth stop. Maria ushered them towards the door. Thor instinctively wrapped an arm around Loki’s shoulder to comfort his little brother. Loki, who usually slipped out from under Thor’s arm, leaned into Thor, trying to keep away from the crowd, who was extremely riled up.

They were lead to a car, and transported to where their beauty teams awaited them. Thor and Loki were separated, much to their dismay. Loki’s team cooed over him as they lead him to his room. He crossed paths with a red headed girl about his age wearing a necklace with a charm that looked like an arrow. They nodded to each other, and he fingered the hammer charm that hung from a leather strip around his neck. 

He was lead into the room, stripped, dowsed with water, and scrubbed until his skin was pink. They put something in his hair that made it look thick and shiny. 

Thor, who was in a room at the far end of the hall, was arguing with his team. They were trying to come near him with tubs of hot wax and strips of fabric. They wanted to rip off some of his hair with the wax and fabric. After ten minutes of Thor avoiding the hands of the team, the women gave up and placed the wax back on the counter.

 

After a few excruciating hours, all of the tributes had been scrubbed, made-up, dressed, and lead to the stables.

Thor was one of the last to be escorted to the stables. He was lead to a chariot that was being led by two black horse, Loki sat on the floor of the chariot and waved at him. Thor took a seat next to him and saw that Loki was wearing the same outfit he was. Black leather with tight silver chain-mail covering his arms, and a plate of silver encircling his abdomen.

“They took the charm mother gave me.” He said in a soft voice. 

“And they took my ring.”

“That’s typical.” Maria informed them. “They have to make sure you can’t use them as weapons in the arena.” The boys nodded and sat in silence.

After a few moments. Maria nudged Thor’s foot to gain his attention. 

“Yeah?” he asked. She pointed to the chariot behind them where Bruce and Betty stood quietly, listening to Tony blabber about how much he loved his, rather pitiful, goatee that his beauty team had given him.

Bruce and Betty would occasionally look up and give the other’s lips a calculating look. Thor realized that they were trying to decide whether or they were going to steal a kiss. Thor got to his face and plucked a sugar cube that was in a pouch nearby. He lightly tossed it at Bruce. The cube bounced off the back of his head and he turned to look, causing the other three from his district to look at Thor.

“Go ahead and kiss her. One of you is gonna be dead soon, so you might as well.” He said with a smile. Betty and Bruce both turned bright red. Tony, however nodded. 

“Muscle-man’s got a point.” Tony said thoughtfully. Both sputtered at him. “Oh, come on. Everyone back home’s been waiting for you two to get together. And it’s not like we’re all gonna be alive for long.”

Thor smiled as the three began to argue. Jane edged around the group and walked up to Thor. “I don’t think it helped. They’ve been acting like that for years, and if anything it set them back.” She informed Thor, before holding out her hand. “I’m Jane Foster.” Thor took the hand and shook it.

“Thor Odinson. And, may I ask what you’re wearing?” They both looked at her red and gold dress, which seemed to be made up of wire weaved together. 

“Well, apparently when our stylists thought technology they thought electrical wire. Honestly, I’m glad they waxed me or it would pinch more than it does. I’m sure Betty would say the same too.” She motioned to the arguing girl. Thor noticed that her dress was exactly like Jane’s but the wire was purple and green. 

“Apparently they thought it necessary to make use match.” She whispered as a few of their stylists walked by and tried to stop the arguing. Both boys were wearing suits made of weaved wire. Tony’s made of red and gold, Bruce’s made of green and purple.

“They don’t look comfortable.” Loki muttered from the chariot. Jane shook her head. 

“They aren’t. They hurt like crazy. But I particularly feel bad for Bruce. He’s got a chest covered in hair, and he said the team didn’t wax him. Said they would’ve run late if they’d tried.” Thor chuckled.

A bell chimed. It was time for everyone to get in position. Mariko and Yukio strutted past them towards their own chariot, both wearing black leather dresses, with embellishments that matched Thor’s and Loki’s. 

Thor and Loki stepped into their carriage, and got their first good look at the tributes from District One. The four Tributes were covered in gems. The Emma’s dress was covered in diamonds, and they even adorned the pins in her hear. She noticed Thor’s gaze and elbowed Sif, who was covered in dark rubys. She smiled and tucked a stray curl behind her ear. 

Fandral’s suit and gloves were adorned with emeralds. He look much more content with his get up than Logan, whose suit made the brothers burst with laughter at the boy’s suit which was covered in bright yellow topaz’s. He turned and pointed a finger at Thor.

“You two will be the first to die after the gong sounds.” He growled. they might have been worried if he hadn’t been wearing bright yellow gloves.

Heimdall cuffed both boys’ heads. “Pull it together.” He commanded and moved away as the carriages started to roll forward. Maria trotted alongside them. 

“Act nice, I know you both have it in you. Remember, you catch more sponsors with smiles than with frowns. See you soon.”

And with that they rode out of the stable and into the crowded street. They waved at the crowd and smiled as Maria had instructed them to. 

The parade took forever for everyone involved. Except for Tony, who wouldn’t leave Bruce alone about kissing Betty. 

Thor and Loki didn’t even wait for the chariot to stop moving once they reached the housing center, they just hopped right off and ran to the side to avoid the incoming chariot from District Three. They waited for the rest of their group near the elevators. 

They nodded to the Tributes from Three as they passed, and Thor smiled at the tiny boy from Twelve as they passed, all wearing glittering black clothes. 

“I think you scared him.” Loki commented after the door closed. 

“Maybe, but it’s not like I could help it. Tell you what though, I would probably be the only one to give that one a quick death.” He replied, looking pointedly at the girls from their district before calling an elevator.

 

After they’d all bathed and changed, they met in main area of their suite, and the Avox’s served them there as Heimdall replayed the reapings, fast-forwarding to where each Tribute was chosen.

He introduced them and told them what he’d managed to find out from their mentors.

“Emma Frost, Xavier said she’s two-faced. Acts all meek and sweet, but she’s got major anger issues. Sif, trained hard, record high marks on her exams. Fandral, same as Sif, but much more friendly. He’d be a decent ally. Logan Howlett, moody, anger issues, extremely violent. He’d be dead useful as an ally, but in a one on one fight he’s more likely to win, so try to off him early on.” He flipped past their reaping to the District Three group.

“Jane Foster, her mother was a Victor. She has a head for science, not so much for fighting. Betty Ross, same deal, but her father was the Victor. I’d bank on her having some fighting knowledge though. His was the shortest games ever recorded, only four days, wiped out three fourths of the other Tributes. Bruce Banner, smart, knows his way around weapons, but according to Couslon has his own anger management issues, probably springing from his neglectful dad. Tony Stark, probably your biggest threat from that batch. Can make a weapon out of anything, and considering the way the game makers are, all four will be provided with what they need to improvise a weapon, so it might be a good idea to make friends.”

Yukio snorted. “They’re nothing but a bunch of geeks, they’re no threat.” Mariko giggled.

“Sometimes the most unlikely opponents can prove to be your downfall.” He reminded her before skipping to the District Four reaping.

“Jessica Darcy, bottom of her class, but for some reason the girl that was supposed to volunteer kept silent. Not good with weapons but she’s sneaky, so check your food every morning and make sure she hasn’t slipped anything poisonous into your bag. Natasha Romanoff, only fifteen, but she’s already top of her class. She’s sneaky, she’s a good liar, and she’s deadly, but apparently she’s got a weakness when it comes to her friend Clint Barton, who’s right on her tail. Not as dangerous as Natasha, but he’s good with long range weapons. Don’t let him get to high though, or you’ll be dead men walking. And finally, Grant Ward, he’s not worth befriending, kill him as soon as possible and get it over with, but remember, he was one of the best in his age group, so tread lightly.

“The kids from five aren’t really dangerous, but keep an eye on Raven, the blonde. She’s apparently really good with disguises. Again with Six, no one really threatening, except for Rhodes. He’s got some serious muscle. The younger girl from Seven, do her a favor and make her death quick. She’s sickly and has a lame leg. However, the other three you might want to keep an eye on. Susan and Johnny Storm are brother and sister, and the other boy, Reed Richards, is Susan’s boyfriend. Apparently they’re all really loyal to each other, and both boys plan on getting Susan out, so watch them. And if you kill one or both of the boys, but don’t get Susan, she’s extremely vindictive and you would do well to sleep with one eye open.

“Melinda May from Nine is used to fighting for her life, and obviously she’s also good at winning those fights. A girl named Skye from Ten, apparently she’s stronger than she looks. There are two orphans from Eleven to keep an eye on. Storm, she’s the one with white hair, some accident when she was a kid, and Sam Wilson, they banded together back home, and are, like May, used to fighting for their lives.”

“As for Twelve, your biggest threat would be from ‘Bucky’ who volunteered for the little boy. Apparently he’s willing to die for the kid.” The girls burst into raucous laughter when the two boys appeared on the screen.

“Oh please, like they could cause trouble.” Yukio managed. Thor shot a look at them.

“I wouldn’t underestimate them if I was you. The desire to win is nowhere near as strong as the desire to protect.” The girls heard the threat in his voice and stopped laughing.

 

After they finished eating, they went to their rooms. Thor sat in the window seat, watching the crowd of the capitol come and go. He knew he should get some rest, Gods only knew how little he’d get when in the arena, but his thoughts drifted back to the other Tributes. Natasha, who’s weakness was her friend. Bruce and Tony, who were obviously close, otherwise Thor got the feeling that Bruce would’ve pummeled the boy if that hadn't been the case. The crowd from Seven, who were determined to keep each other safe. And the two small boys from Twelve. 

All of them were in the same situation as he was. They had someone that they loved in the arena with them. If only they were strangers, some random kids off the street that had met but didn’t really know one another, then the chances of protecting Loki would have been higher.

He shook his head. He couldn’t afford to think like that. It only meant that he’d have to fight harder and make it longer than he’d planned. His first targets would have to be those groups, the friends.


	4. First Day

Thor and Loki went down to the training center before the girls woke up. Neither had slept well and both had been up early. 

They found that they weren’t the only ones. When they arrived, Natasha and Clint had already gone to town with the dummies. Arrows and throwing knives had turned thier targets into pin cushions. They slowly walked toward Clint as he sent arrow after arrow right into the heart of one of the targets.

“That’s a little scary.” Loki said. Clint turned to look at them and smiled. 

“Thanks. This is the result of multiple broken legs. I got benched and instead of doing nothing I worked with the bow.” Clint replied. 

Thor smiled. “Damn, I wish I’d thought of that. I did weight work when I had broken legs.” Clint shrugged.

“To each their own. Tasha never broke anything, she’s that good.” He jerked his head towards his friend, who’d started working on a simulator in the corner, identifying poisonous plants. 

Loki picked up one of the throwing knives that was left on the table. “So, how hard would you say this is?” he asked Clint. Clint moved towards Loki and started teaching him how to throw a knife properly, so Thor walked to Natasha’s side.

“So I see your brothers gotten on Clint’s good side.” She said, not looking up from what she was doing. “It’s sadly not hard to achieve that.” Thor nodded. 

“I know the type. I guess you’re harder to convert?” She nodded, still not looking up. 

Thor heard a thunk and Loki’s delighted laugh. 

Natasha completed the simulator with a perfect score and she turned to him. “Listen. I hope that there won’t be any hard feelings if I try to kill you or your brother. Only one person can get out. It’s nothing personal.”

Thor laughed. “Yeah, I got that, and the same goes to you and your friend.” Another thunk sounded from the target.

“Nope, none at all.”

 

It was a small comfort to Thor when Loki turned out to be a natural at throwing knives, it meant he could defend himself without letting an opponent get to close. But for the first part of the day, Thor dragged his brother to the stations where survival skills were taught. If Thor was killed, he wanted Loki to be able to take care of himself.

Four hours into the training, Thor spotted a girl with the number five pinned to her shirt. She had managed to paint her arm to perfectly match the ground on a nearby station. She looked up and gave him a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

A moment later, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner joined them while Loki continued his attempt at setting snares. 

“That’s too small for a person.” Bruce said soflty, pointing at the loop that Loki had formed. Loki grimaced. 

“Cause it’s for an animal.” He replied. Tony plopped down next to Thor. 

“Well, I think it’d be a bit more useful to set one up for people. Saves you the trouble of having to hunt them down. set up a good enough trap, wait until someone stumbles across it, and that’s one less person for you to worry about, or more, depending on the trap.” Tony said with a winning smile.

“Sounds like a cowards way out if you ask me.” Thor replied.

“Of course it does.” A girl said from behind them. They looked up, and Thor found a thin red-head standing nearby, a ten pined to her shirt sleeve. “You’re all muscle and can take people on with no problem, but for others it’s our only way out.” She said in a scolding tone before walking off.

Tony laughed. “Virginia Potts, District Ten. She took the words right out of my mouth. Seriously, though, not everyone looks like a fairy tale prince.” Thor rolled his eyes.

 

After another hour they were ushered into a dining hall. They sat in a far corner and began to eat. They were joined by Natasha and Clint. 

“We’re sitting with you.” She informed them, “Everyone else are huge pains in the ass.” Thor nodded, but was a bit distracted by a tall stack of cookies that rested on Clint’s tray. Thor cocked an eyebrow as Clint looked around.

“Is it necessary to eat so many?” He inquired. Clint nodded.

“Chocolate chip cookies are made of sugar and fat, both of which we will need in the arena. Therefore I need to eat a lot of them. Do you know if there’s any milk lying around?” 

Thor smiled at Clint’s logic. “No, but you’ve got water.” This earned him a glare from the younger boy.

“What kind of animal are you? You can’t wash down cookies with water! It has to be milk! Milk or nothing!” Clint declared, and continued looking around the hall for milk. Natasha rolled her eyes and dug into her lamb stew. 

“I’ll give you some milk if I can sit with you.” A small voice said. they turned to see two small teens. The girl balanced her tray on one hand, and held a pitcher of milk in the other. 

Thor motioned to the chairs between him and Natasha. The girl set the pitcher of mil down in front of Clint and took the seat next to Thor. Clint smiled gratefully at the girl, grabbed a cookie and dunked it into the pitcher.

Thor smiled as Clint shoved the cookie into his mouth, picked up the pitcher and drank straight from it.

The girl gave Clint a bemused look before turning to Thor. “I’m Jemma Simmons, and this is Leo Fitz.” She pointed to the boy, who was shoveling chicken into his mouth. “We’re from District Eleven.”

Clint smiled at her. “Nice to meet you.” He said through a mouthful of milk and cookies. “Thanks for the milk.”

Jemma nodded. “No problem.”

 

Once they finished eating, Thor helped Loki learn how to use various weapons. The sword turned out to be Loki’s other specialty. He admitted to watching Thor practice in their back yard, and mimicking the moves in his room. 

 

The girls ignored them when they arrived back in their rooms. Maria rolled her eyes as she explained that they thought it below themselves to make allies with a couple of barely trained fifteen year olds. Thor shrugged this off. The girls had always been a bit to uppity for his taste. 

 

DISTRICT THREE APARTMENT

Tony sat and fiddled with some wire he’d snuck out of the training room.

“You know,” Jane started, “That Thor guy from District Two seems really nice.” Tony stopped fiddling.

“You mean Point-Break? It’s hard to think someone’s nice when they swing a sword around and slice the practice dummies to pieces in three seconds.” He retorted. Betty rolled her eyes.

“Obviously you didn’t see the way he interacts with his little brother, he’s very patient and kind.” She said, as if this should have been obvious. 

Phil took a seat next to Bruce. “Try to make an ally of him or his brother. Thor would definitely be a good weapon to have on your side.”

“But what about when he decides that he’s tired of working with us? He’ll kill us all in a matter of minutes.” Bruce pointed out. “He’s a career, it’s what they do.”

Phil shook his head. “I spoke to Heimdall, he said that Thor’s not like the usual boys. Although he’s the top of his class, he’s not obsessed with the kill like most are. Most of the Careers give the Capitol the brutal deaths and the blood, but he’s a quick thinker and he’s calculating. He knows all the ways to defeat an obstacle while using the minimal amount of effort and energy.” He said this with a small amount of awe.

“Meaning he’s less likely to torture you and chase you down, if that’s what you’re worried about. He’s more likely to snap your necks while you sleep. Quick and efficient. Granted, to keep sponsors, he’ll have to have a few gruesome deaths, but I doubt he’ll waste that energy on you if you’ve helped him survive.”

“Is that supposed to make us feel better?” Tony asked. Betty nodded.

“We’re bound to die at some point, if I’m gonna go, I want it to be quick.” She said softly.

Bruce shook his head. “Some way to show gratitude. ‘Hey, you’ve helped keep me alive, now I’ll kill you real quick.’”

“Bruce,” Phil said with a patient sigh, “That’s how it’ll be. I doubt he’ll go through all that to let you kill him and his brother.”

“I’m just saying it sucks.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I decided to add Fitzsimmons right before i wrote them in, in case you're wondering why I didn't mention them in the tags.


	5. Presetnations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long. College is a pain in the butt, on the bright side i'm able to type faster than i did when i updated last so the chapters will come together faster.

On the fourth day of their stay, they were ushered into the dining hall upon arrival. They were supposed to impress the game makers, convince them to give the tributes high scores. Thor tapped his fingers to the beat of an old song his mother had once sung to him, he’d seen a war hammer in the corner of the room before he left, and planned to go into the simulator and use that.

Loki had started shaking again. He tried to plan out his presentation, how he was going to use the throwing knives available to him. But he couldn’t straighten out his thoughts enough.

Natasha, however was as calm as could be as she continuously tossed her butter knife into the air. 

Tony had laid down on his table once his fellow Tributes had put up their lunch dishes, and visualized in his head how he was going to turn a few of the items he’d seen into a deadly weapon in fourteen minutes. 

Bruce had given up, he’d decided that it wasn’t worth the energy to do something spectacular and told the girls to wake him up when his name was called and took a nap.

Steve sulked in his chair, the only thing he’d really been good at was starting a fire, and that wasn’t going to get him very many points. ‘Maybe,’ he thought, ‘I can do hand to hand combat in the simulator, that is, if my asthma doesn’t act up…’

Bucky had also fallen asleep, confident in his skill with a knife.

 

“Emma Frost, District One.” A voice said through the speakers above. The tributes that were still awake all sat up a little straighter, and their hearts began to beat a little faster. 

After an hour of tapping his foot rapidly and shaking, much like a rabbit, Loki was called into the training room, Thor ruffled him brother’s hair and wished him good luck. Loki nervously walked into the room and headed straight for the table with the throwing knives, he could feel the eyes of the all the Gamemakers on him as he collected the knives. 

He quickly walked into the simulator, selected a high difficulty, and hit the start button. Once the walls darkened Loki felt the pressure of fifty eyes lift, and felt free. He saw the first figure flicker at the edge of his field of vision and snapped to the left, releasing the knife before ceasing two more knives and throwing them across his body, towards two orange figures wielding swords, nailing both in the heart. He turned, and caught a glimpse of an ax swinging down, he rolled to the side, using his momentum as he came to his feet to throw another knife into the head of the swinger. A figure at the top of the simulator aimed a spear at him and he hurled his knife as hard as he could into the figure’s chest. As the figure fell to the ground, the walls lightened again, allowing him to see the game makers applauding his performance.

Susan started when she heard her name called. She’d registered Reed and Johnny leaving, but she hadn’t paid attention to the fact that her fellow female Tribute had gone in.

She stood and entered the large room. The Gamemakers nodded to her, or, at least, most of them did. She walked to the station with all of the paints and got to work, studying the pattern of the fake trees in the snare center. She looked out of the corner of her eyes while she quickly painted her legs. None of the game makers were looking at her now, she’d probably lost their attention after walking away from the weapons. Of course it probably worked to her advantage, considering what she planned on doing. 

She grinned down at where bark lay drying on her legs. For something that was done with very little time, it was very convincing. 

She had some difficulty when she tried to use her left arm to paint her right, but she decided she could always shove that arm behind her if need-be.

A couple minutes later, she was done. She ran into the trees, turned to face the Gamemakers stood as still as possible, and whistled loudly. The Gamemakers looked up and around for her, unable to see her, one turned and started to instruct an Avox to call the next tribute.

“I’m still in here.” She taunted loudly. They all jumped, one of the men spilled his drink down his front. They looked around wildly. She then hopped out of the snare center and walked into the center of the room and received a standing ovation.

“Peggy Carter, District Twelve.” The voice called. Darcy wished her good luck as Peggy walked towards the door.

Once inside, she had to call her name loudly to alert the game makers to her presence. They waved at her to begin and she walked over to one of the dummies that lit up when you hit a pressure point with enough force. She went to work, jabbing and kicking, until she noticed she didn’t have their attention. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and walked towards where the Gamemakers sat.

“HEY!” she screamed at them. They all turned to look. “THE FOOD WILL STILL BE THERE IN TEN MINUTES! I WON’T BE! NOW SIT DOWN AND PAY ATTENTION!” They obeyed.

She walked back to the dummy, and glared back up to ensure she still had their attention before continuing her attack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I also apologize for the shortness of this chapter compared to the rest. However the scores come up next and require a chapter of their own, so there's that to look forward to.


	6. Scores and Surprises

DISTRICT TWO APARTMENT

Once again, the girls had decided that they didn’t feel like being in the main room, so Loki and Thor were able to take up the entire couch for the few hours after they had given their presentation. Maria fetched them before dinner so that they could watch the scores be given out. 

“I felt wonderful about my presentation.” Yukio said with a smug smile before pushing Loki further down the couch. “In fact, I’ll be surprised if I don’t get an eleven.” Thor rolled his eyes. 

“Well I’ll be happy to see the surprised look on your face when you don’t get an eleven.” Loki snapped. “The last people to receive that high of a score participated in the Hundredth Games, And they barely made it.”

Yukio rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well, their kid is my grandmother, it’s in my blood to receive a good score.”

Thor shook his head. “I preferred it when you two stayed in your rooms.” he said under his breath. They both glared at him, but the television program switched to Caesar Flickerman and his announcements for the games as they stood.

“Hello Panem! Very exciting news from the Gamemakers today! Forty-eight Tributes, meaning forty- eight scores to announce! I hope you’re comfortable!” 

“That man’s ancient, he’s been hosting the games forever. And I mean forever.” Maria muttered. 

On screen Caesar made a show of straightening out his papers, allowing people to make last minute bathroom breaks before the night’s main events unfolded. 

 

However, what the citizens of Panem did not see was that every tribute was taking the hands of their fellow tributes and mentors in anticipation for their scores, and therefore their chances of finding a sponsor and living through the games. 

All four Tributes from District One received nines, to nobody’s surprise. 

“From District Two, Loki Odinson,” Loki shuddered as his face appeared on screen, “With a score of, nine!” Thor pulled Loki tight while Heimdall clapped him on the back. 

“Thor Odinson, with a score of, ten!” Thor grinned. He did better than everyone in One, meaning so far he was more able than the other tributes. And he was even more thrilled when the girls both got eights.

 

DISTRICT THREE APARTMENT

“Do you need anymore proof that you need to ally yourselves with the brothers from Two?” Phil asked the kids, who all shook their heads. They’d seen how vicious those girls were in the Training Arena, and for them to not even be equal with Loki, that was good enough for them.

“From District Three, Bruce Banner, with a score of, nine!” everyone turned to innocent little Bruce. 

“How?” Tony asked. 

“I thought of my father and beat the shit out of the dummy. It will never light up again.” His fellow Tributes shuddered, Bruce was hardly ever that violent, and it was yet another reminder that they were going to have to fight each other.

“Anthony Stark, with a score of, seven!” Tony’s shoulders fell. So what if his death ray hadn’t worked? It would have if that stingy Gamemaker had let him borrow a cuff-link. 

“Jane Foster with a score of, seven, and Elizabeth Ross with a score of seven.” Caesar announced before switching the program to the commercial break.

 

DISTRICT TWO APARTMENT

 

The girls both slunk off after their scores were called and insisted on eating and going to bed, interviews were the next day and they wanted to look their best, and that meant that they felt they didn’t need to see anyone else’s scores because they were good enough to kill all of the other Tributes. But it was rather obvious that they were mad that they didn’t get higher scores. This meant that they missed seeing Bruce’s high score.

Thor was genuinely shocked that the kids from Three had gotten such low scores. They were all smart and talented. 

“From District Four,” Caesar said after beaming at the audience whose attention was now focused back on him. “Clint Barton, with a score of, nine!” Loki and Thor smiled, they knew he was bound to do well. 

“Grant Ward, with a score of ten!” Thor stopped smiling. Heimdall said that they needed to take out Ward in the beginning and this proved he was right. 

“Natasha Romanoff with a score of eleven!” Loki giggled for a moment, imagining the look on Yukio’s face upon hearing this news, but Thor was just glad that she seemed to like them.

The other girl from the same district got a seven, not bad, but not good.

It was at this time that Maria brought food over to where the boys sat on the couch, so thor wasn’t quite as focused on the scores, but noticed that three kids from five were actually bound o be a problem; Remy LeBou, Raven Darkholme, and a girl that simply went by Rogue all got eights.

However, District Six spat out four sixes, not even “Rhodey,” who had a good deal of muscle on him, was as good as anticipated.

Then next four districts went much the same way, with the highest score of the lot being Susan Storm from District Seven with a score of eight.

“From District Eleven, Leo Fitz, with a score of Seven.” 

“With the way he was acting that’s a good score.” Loki muttered sleepily. Thor nodded. The boy had acted like such a loser, but seven was higher than Thor would have given him. 

“Sam Wilson, with a score of nine!” Thor sat up a little straighter, and studied the face of the dark boy before he disappeared from the screen. He’d seen the boy around the center, mostly beating the crap out of the punching bags, he was muscular, probably from working in the fields.

“Storm Munroe, with a score of eight.” Thor bit back a laugh. This girl would be a clear target with that snow white hair of hers, even despite her score, she would be easy to deal with.

“Jemma Simmons with a score of nine!” Everyone blinked, remembering the scrawny girl that could barely hold up a jug of milk and they wondered how she could possibly be able to score that high.

 

DISTRICT TWELVE

Steve had found it hard to focus for the past few hours. For one, he was tired, for another, Peggy had sat down next to him and taken his hand about the time Caesar announced Natasha Romanoff’s score. Another reason he couldn’t concentrate was because Peggy’s grip was currently breaking Steve’s fingers. 

“From District Twelve, James ‘Bucky’ Barnes, with a score of eight!” Bucky beamed. 

“Your name is actually James? How dorky is that?” Darcy snickered over her fourth bowl of noodles. Bucky stuck his tongue out at her.

“Steven Rogers with a score of right!” Steve bilinked rapidly. Had the Gamemakers not realized he was having an asthama attack? Or were they paying attention? 

“Peggy Carter with a score of nine!” Peggy beamed and released Steve’s hand. “And last but not least, Darcy Lewis with a score of eight!”

“Damn striaght!” Darcy yelled at Flickerman. “I earned that with a healthy dose of persistance!”

“What did you do?”

“Ever heard of a taser? My cousin works as an electritian and he taught me how to make it, it’s amazing.”

 

DISTRICT TWO APARTMENT

Thor dragged his brother to bed, all the while trying to figure out who he could form a last minute alliance with, but it looked as if he were rather stuck with Clint and Natasha, but if he were able to get Jemma out of the cornecopia alive, he’d be able to survive.

“Thor?” Loki asked.

“Yeah?”

“Are we gonna be able to get out of the Games?”

“Of course you will.”

Thor gently laid Loki out on his bed.

“No, I mean both of us.”

“Of course not, there can only be one winner.” Thor said quietly before heading out of the room.

“Thor?” Loki called again.

“Yeah?”

“If we can’t both leave, then I hope that Clint can go home. He’s to nice to die. They’re all to nice to die.” Loki muttered before falling fast asleep. Thor stood watch over his little brother for a moment before saying, “You’re right. They are all to nice to die.”


	7. Gossip and Conspiracy

A message was sent early the following morning to the Tributes and their Mentors, alerting them to a change in the way that the interviews usually occured.

“... Even though we have presented all of the Tributes on one show for the past two hundred years, there are simply to many interviews to fit into one night. Therefore, the interviews will span all through tomorrow. Take today to prepare the Tributes....” 

This was quite a disappointment to the citizens of The Capitol, but all of the Tributes gave a sigh of relief.

However, it seemed to President Fury that none of the Tributes gained the upper hand. Either they had to get up extremely early for the prep teams to beautify the Tributes, and they were forced to skip a meal and lose valuable sleep, or they had to stay up late and also lose sleep. 

This wasn’t his main concern, because the Capitol people were prone to protest if they didn’t get Hunger Games activity every single day from the Reaping to the Games’ beginning. 

He realized a few hours into that day, that it did not seem to be a problem. The Tributes spent the entire day prepping themselves for the interviews, or studying their fellow Tributes for weaknesses and strengths, or in Thor and Loki’s case, reviewing what they had learned in the training center. What they didn’t realize was that the Capitol’s eyes were still on them. Maintenance men had planted hidden cameras in the apartments of the tributes the morning before while the Tributes and Mentors and escorts were out. 

The Gamemakers first focused on Jemma Simmons, who, after an hour of watching Tributes hack dummies to pieces, had a panic attack. The audience never found if she was able to calm down because halfway through her attack, the boys from four got in a fight. 

This was the only thing anyone thought of for nearly fifteen minutes. It started with name calling and shoving, but after a few unkindly words from Grant Ward about Miss Romanoff, Clint turned the whole thing into a fist fight. Peace Keepers were brought in, but couldn’t end the fight, and there didnt seem to be a winner until Natasha found out, came down from the roof where she had been practicing her boxing on an unfortunate sapling, and with four quick moves separated the boys and ended the fight.

Since they had been separated, there was no clear winner, but if you were to ask the Citizens of Panem, they would all say Clint had, because Grant stayed at the infirmary for seven hours, while Clint was in and out within two. 

Nothing very extraordinary happened for a few hours afterwards, so the scenes would change between all of the rooms and all of the Tributes. It wasn’t until after lunch when Jane Foster dropped her notebook and bent to pick it up that a scene was made. The reason? She found one of the hidden cameras.

There was an uproar in the District Three rooms, which only ended with the Gamemakers being forced to explain the situation to each and every District, and maintenance crews coming in and removing the cameras. 

This seemed to be enough for the Capitol, which went about their evenings, content with the fact that they would have all of tomorrow to make up for today’s rather boring program. 

Fury, however, was, well, furious at the Gamemakers for not alerting him to the installation of the cameras. Or to their existance at all.

“THEY ARE CHILDREN! AND THEY DESERVE PRIVACY!” he bellowed at the Head-Gamemaker.

“Sir,” he replied shakily, “They are here by our good grace, they are living under our roofs, eating Capitol quality food, and being given a chance to bring pride and glory to their Districts’ name! Why shouldn’t they allow us to peek into their lives for a few moments?”

“BECAUSE THEY ARE CHILDREN WHO ARE GOING TO BE DEAD BEFORE THE MONTH IS OUT! YOU WOULDN’T WANT THAT HAPPENING TO YOUR CHILDREN SO WHY ARE YOU DOING IT TO THEM?”

“Sir, if we didn’t the masses would raise! You wouldn’t want another uprising, would you?” 

Fury scowled at the young man who had spoken.

“They would raise up against the fact that they are not given a chance to parade young people out to the public? That wold be something that would be cure withing hours, because they would just need reminding of the fact that they’ll have all day tomorrow. It’s not difficult!” He spun and walked away, disgusted by the men at the table.

“Sir! Where are you going?”

“To apologize to the Districts myself.”

Though, many of the Tributes weren’t even aware of his arrival, he appeared at the door, made sincere apologies to the adults, and moved on to the next district. 

 

Thor and Loki were oblivious to all of this. They spent the entire time practicing or reviewing the tapes from the Training Center. This was all the better, it gave them an advantage over almost everyone. 

The only ones that weren’t going to be as affected by the ordeal, besides the brothers, were the four children from Twelve. Their mentor had tuned in early in the morning and noticed that the apartments were being watched, so he tuned into the videos from the arena before the screen changed to their apartments.

He had managed to convey the message without the Gamemakers being aware of their knowledge, and they spent the day doing almost nothing. 

Well, that’s not quite true. What nobody ever noticed were that the children and adults were slipping each other messages on tiny pieces of paper all throughout the day, while carrying on entirely different conversations. 

It was only after the Cameras were removed that they allowed themselves to be emersed in their plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope nobody had a problem with the lack of dialogue. But don't worry, there will be plenty of dialogue in the next chapter.


	8. Let the Games Begin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry about the huge gap between updates. I had gotten so wrapped up in another fic that I had completely forgotten about this one. 
> 
> On the bright side, I now have a tumblr! If you want to follow and talk to me about future prompts then search for my url authr2b and hit me up!

Heimdall had to drag Thor out of his bed two days later. The interviews the day before had been draining and were just a big colorful blur in his mind. He and Maria shepherded the tributes from their apartment to the attic where they boarded the hovercrafts. 

The gravity that the Hunger Games were about to start woke Thor up more than his coffee. Loki tried to cling to him when the Peacemakers told them they would be in separate rooms, so Thor had to tell him everything would be okay, and that he’d be right back by his side the minute he could grab what they needed.

Loki eventually let himself be led away by the peacemakers. 

All of the champions were dressed in thin but sturdy pants and long sleeved shirts, with heavy duty boots and a hooded coat made out of some sort of clear plastic. Thor didn’t ask about the material, and his stylist didn’t say a word either. 

The two of them sat in the quiet room until a woman’s voice told them that it was time for the Tributes to get inside the glass tube in the corner of the room. Thor got to his feet and walked into the tube. 

He was rethinking his strategy over and over. Grab everything on his path to the cornucopia, get his weapon, and then food and throwing knives for Loki, and then get the ever loving fuck out.

If Loki hadn't been there, he would have stayed longer, but with circumstances the way they were, the whole plan he had created in school had been thrown out the window. 

He grimaced when the trap door above his head opened and water came drizzling in, and the sky above was gray. He lifted the hood of his jacket over his head and sighed. He would have to be especially careful in the rain, one bad step and he would be dead.

Once above ground, he scanned the faces for Loki, and found him just off to his right in the loop of Tributes. Giant numbers above the cornucopia ticked down slowly, and the Tributes prepared themselves for the bloodbath to come.

Thor caught Loki's attention, and motioned for him to run into the trees directly behind them. Loki nodded nervously and tensed for the sprint. 

Thor then focussed every fiber of his being as the numbers hit ten.

A canon sounded as the numbers disappeared and Thor launched himself from the pedestal, he saw a hammer lying halfway between him and the horn, and grinned. He grabbed a random backpack that lay in his path and slung it over his shoulder. 

The sounds of fist-fights began behind him as he snatched up the hammer and continued into the inside of the cornucopia. He skidded to a halt, grabbing a loaf of bread and a jug of water and shoving them into his bag. 

He leaned over the table and snatched twenty throwing knives from the wall. He heard footsteps and whirled to face his opponents, but it was Natasha and Clint, so he turned back, grabbed the first few items he could get his hands on, and bolted out into the rain. 

He held the hammer in his hand, ready to attack anyone that tried to catch him, but they all seemed rather caught up in each other to pay him any mind. 

He passed the majority of the fighting, and in two seconds made it into the woods. He continued to sprint, and looked for any signs of where Loki was hiding.

A moment later he heard rustling behind him and turned to see Natasha and Clint once more. He stopped and grinned at them.

"We're with you." Natasha said as the pulled up next to him.

"I gathered. We'll find Loki and then put some distance between us and the other tributes." The younger kids nodded and they continued through the trees, though not as fast. 

After a couple minutes, Thor began to wonder if they had already passed him, but this train of thought was ended when they heard a tiny voice call for help. Thor jogged over and found Loki curled up under the roots of a tree.

"I'm stuck." His brother admitted with a small smile. Thor chuckled, and reached down to yank his brother out of his hiding spot. 

That done, Thor handed Loki the knives and they continued on their path. 

An enormous boom echoed throughout the arena and they all turned to see a cloud of smoke and embers above the cornucopia.

"What was that?" Loki asked.

"Sounded like an explosion." Clint murmured. 

"Looks like one too." Nat added as screams and cries of outrage filled the woods.

"I wonder what happened." Thor mused. 

 

What had happened, as he entire Capitol knew, was that Tony had quickly put together a makeshift bomb and had placed it in the cornucopia while Bruce distracted the girls from Two. He had then snitched some food and all of the kids from District Three ditched. 

The bomb went off a moment later, killing the girls from Two and Eight simultaneously, and injuring many others as shrapnel and weapons went flying through the air, resulting in the deaths of the boys from Ten and the remaining young girl from Four.

 

Thor's group stopped and listened as the cannons began to sound the deaths. 

Fourteen loud booms later, the group carried on, only stopping when they reached a particularly large and leafy maple tree. They climbed up it and Thor took first watch as Natasha went through their supplies and the other two boys latched themselves to the tree and slept. 

Neither bothered to wake them up a few hours earlier when the anthem began to play, and they were greeted with Yukio and Mariko's faces. 

Thor grinned, finding it rather funny that they had been taken out in the first day when they had told Loki he would barely make it five minutes into the Games.


	9. Day One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this update took so long, but I've had a lot to deal with in the last few weeks and I'm doing the best I can to update all of my fics so please bear with me, because I have a lot to write.

Thor was woken early the next morning by Clint, who pointed at the ground below them. Thor leaned over his branch and saw three people sitting around a small fire. Even from the height Thor could recognize the forms of the remaining three Tributes from District Five. Rogue tossed her hair over her shoulder and looked around for any sign of other Tributes while Remy and Raven warmed their hands with the small flames. 

He looked up at Clint, who then pantomimed shooting them, and then raised his eyebrows as a question. Thor looked down once more to look at the tributes, then faced Clint again, and nodded. Clint smiled and pulled a bow out of the quiver on his back and took aim. 

The bow twanged and Thor watched as Remy fell over backwards, the arrow sticking out of his chest, as a cannon boomed in the distance. Raven and Rogue jumped to their feet as Clint pulled a second arrow out of his quiver. 

Thor tensed as Clint noiselessly drew another arrow and released it with another twang. Raven collapsed and the cannon boomed once more. Clint began to draw a third arrow, but before he could get it out of the quiver, Rogue was gone. 

"Well, sixteen down." Clint whispered. Thor nodded and looked up at Loki, who had been woken by the second cannon. 

Clint scurried down the tree, quickly collected the arrows and stomped out the fire, then climbed back up. 

"We should probably leave." Natasha whispered. "They need to collect the bodies and if anyone saw the fire then they'll be coming this way to check it out." Thor agreed and they quickly packed up and slipped out of the tree.

 

Tony looked into the sky, wondering if they'd show who had just been killed, but nothing appeared. He huddled closer to his friends in the small book hidden by the roots of the tree above them. 

Bruce stirred and looked around sleepily. "I thought I heard a cannon." 

"Two of them. I wish I knew who'd done the deed." Tony replied quietly. The two boys sat in silence only broken by the soft breaths of their female companions. 

After a few minutes they heard the crunching of boots on twigs and leaves, and froze.

"We should be good." A voice said softly above them. "We're far enough away, let's get a little more rest and then start hunting in the morning." Tony strained to remember where he'd heard the breathy female voice.

"Is hunting a nice way of saying 'find other tributes to kill?'" Another voice asked dryly. Tony and Bruce both froze, recognizing Loki's voice.

"We need to do both. We've got a very little food and since we can't go back to the Cornucopia we're going to have to hunt." Thor's voice said, significantly closer. 

"So I'm assuming you want me to climb the tree first?" A third male voice asked. 

"Please. I can't tell handholds for shit in this light." Thor replied. The sound of boots on the roots of the tree quickly followed the request. Tony looked over to see Jane and Betty both wide awake. They listened as more feet stepped on the roots, and were soon looking up at Thor's large feet perched on the roof above them as someone scrambled up the side of the tree. 

The four friends stayed as quiet as possible as Thor tightened his grip on a large hammer and another form began to scuttle up the side of the tree. 

They were almost in the clear as another form began to climb and Thor turned to do the same, but his foot slipped and fell into their hiding place. He let out a yell as he fell, and his boot made contact with Bruce's stomach.

The other boy groaned and Thor quickly retracted his leg and positioned himself to look into the hole. He stared down at the four frightened Tributes. 

"Thor, what're you doing?" Loki asked from high above them. Thor winked and got to his feet. 

"Nothing. I just fell into a fox hole." 

"There anything in it?" The other male voice asked from even higher up. 

"Nah. Just an old nest. It doesn't look like anything's been in it for a long time." 

"Damn. I could have caught us some dinner." The voice said as Thor began scaling the tree. 

The four Tributes waited an hour before climbing out of their hiding place, they looked into the tree, and found that Thor was on watch. He smiled at them and motioned for them to get a head start. So they took the opportunity and ran as quickly and quietly as they could away from the tree.

 

"I saw that." Natasha muttered. He turned to look at where she was laying on the next branch.

"I saw no reason to end their lives." He replied. "They may be valuable allies." 

"They'll weigh us down." 

"Bruce got a nine. Betty and Jane make amazing traps." Thor looked back out into the night. "If they make it to another meeting they may be very valuable allies."

 

Leo and Jemma huddled against each other as the group from One and Grant Ward trekked past their cave. 

"We need to take out Odinson first." Logan snarled.

"Give it a rest Logan. He laughed at your yellow outfit just like everyone else. If we come across him it may be worth it to ally ourselves with him." Fandral suggested.

"And how would we do that?" Sif asked. 

"Promise that, should something happen to him, we protect baby brother." Fandral explained. "You heard him. He'll do whatever it takes to keep him out of harms way."

"So we're supposed to just protect his kid brother and let him win?" Emma asked.

"No." Grant grumbled. "Once Thor's dead we take out the brother." Fandral nodded.

"The problem is that Natasha and Clint had planned on allying themselves with the brothers." Grant continued. "If she's there when we make the deal then she'll right through us." 

"Then we take her out without anyone realizing it was us." Emma said, they all came to a halt. Jemma was now shaking, and Leo was holding her tight. 

"But that Barton kid has the arrows." Logan reminded her. "Without those we have no way to kill her without revealing it was us." 

"We'll find a way." Sif said calmly. "For now let's find those kids from Seven. That one kid Johnny had a knack for building fires, it shouldn't be too hard to find them."

And with that they moved on. Once Jemma thought it was safe she said "We should tell them. Loki was sweet, I'd hate for him to get stabbed in the back."

Leo nodded. "Yeah, and it'll get us on their good side. We could use some allies like them."

 

The five Careers spotted the fire started by Johnny Storm twenty minutes later. They slinked towards the camp of the siblings and Reed, to find it empty.

"Where are they?" Emma asked, stunned. Sif and Fandral looked around. 

"Maybe they ditched camp. They can't have gotten far. Let's go get 'em." Grant suggested. The other five nodded and they sprinted out of the camp.

A few minutes later four forms covered in mud and leaves and moss moved from their hiding places. 

"We shoulda clobbered them." The bulkiest form grunted. 

"Violence isn't always the answer, Ben." Reed said shakily. Johnny snorted. 

"Please. This is the Hunger Games. Violence is the only answer." Susan nodded.

"He's right. But right now we can't face them head on. We need weapons." 

 

Thor roused his group when the sun began to rise. They slid down the tree and made their way into the woods, an eye out for possible food. The four children were a bit more relaxed knowing they would be able to see anyone the Careers coming, but Thor and Clint kept their weapons at the ready. 

 

The majority of the day was peaceful, and the citizens of the Capitol began to get restless. The Tributes had spread out all around the arena with no sign of running across each other any time soon. 

Before nightfall, the Gamemakers had decided that it was time to bring them together.

 

The group from Seven sat together at the southeast section of the arena, trying to make a fire to cook the small rabbit that Ben had trapped. 

"Could you hurry up?" Reed asked, looking at the darkening sky. 

"It's all wet, it's going to take some time, chill." Johnny hissed. The fire burst into life and the four smiled, until it began to spread outside of the circle of stones they had set up. 

"What the hell?" Johnny asked, jumping away as the flames grew before them, and began to catch the nearby trees and bushes. They all backed away as the fire spread and grew unnaturally fast. 

 

Natasha looked up as the sound of screaming filled the air. 

"What's going on?" Loki asked, halfway through shoving his water bottle into his bag. 

"I don't know." She looked towards where the screams were coming from and saw a pillar of smoke. 

"I think someone was found by the Careers." Clint said through a mouthful of crackers. "Any idiots that set a fire and think it won't draw attention to them deserve what they get." 

The boys continued packing but Natasha's eyes remained on the growing cloud of smoke and the screaming that seemed to be growing in volume. 

"Guys, something's up." Thor threw his pack over his shoulder and walked to Natasha's side. 

The sky began to light up and they heard a crashing sound, and all four prepared to fight. 

Jemma and Leo were the first ones to appear. 

"RUN!" Leo screamed, "RUN!" He repeated as the two zipped by them at speeds that the other four didn't think we're possible. 

Loki looked up to see two dark skinned tributes streak by. 

"What's going on?" He asked them, but they ignored him and kept on running. Thor squinted at the horizon as four more forms came up, followed by tall flames. 

"FIRE!" He bellowed. He grabbed Loki's hand and began dragging him along as he follows the path of the other four tributes.

Clint and Natasha caught up with them in half a second. 

 

The fire had spread all around the arena, and was pushing all of the Tributes towards the center. 

Two cannons boomed as two tributes tripped and were caught up in the blaze, and the Tributes began to run even faster, knowing they might be next.

Thor's group came up on Jemma and Leo, who had run out of steam. Thor pushed Loki ahead, picked up Jemma and slung her over his shoulder before blowing off again. Leo immediately found strength to follow after his best friend, who looked extremely stunned by the turn of events. 

Just as the tributes all began to worry that they wouldn't be able to run any longer, they reached the clearing around the cornucopia where most of the other tributes had gathered and where now recovering from the long run. 

Thor let Jemma slide to the ground as he painted and looked around to make sure Loki had made it safely into the clearing, and saw him sitting on the ground, trying to catch his breath. 

Thor turned back to the forest and watched the advancement of the group behind him. Susan was the first to make it to safety, and collapsed into the arms of Sam Wilson, the dark skinned boy that had passed by them. She gasped for breath and he awkwardly patted her back as Ben flew past and stumbled to a halt. 

"Come on!" Clint yelled at the remaining two boys from Seven. 

Susan turned back around and watched them. Reed fell into the clearing and was dragged to safety by Loki and Leo. 

"Johnny!" Susan screamed as the boy sprinted for his life. 

They thought he was almost safe when his foot caught on a root and he face planted into the ground. 

Clint moved to rescue the boy, but Natasha grabbed his arm as the flames caught up to Johnny and spread over his body. 

Susan screamed and rushed for her brother, but Thor reached out and caught her around her waist. 

"There's no point in throwing your life away. He's beyond our help." He whispered. Susan wept while Johnny screamed in pain, the flames devouring him. Reed finally clambered to his feet and walked over to Thor, who let go of Susan so that her fellow tribute could comfort her. 

Thor saw Natasha tense out of the corner of his eye, and looked over his shoulder to see the other tributes eyeing each other and reaching for weapons. 

The Careers were the first to make their move, they sprinted at the girls from Ten, who happened to be standing too close. 

Thor yelled at his group, causing Clint and Natasha to pull out their weapons. Loki grabbed Leo and Jemma and pulled them behind the three advanced fighters. 

Sam and the white haired girl, Storm, pulled Reed and Susan towards them, ready to protect them. 

Ben, however, ran at the group from Three, who were huddled nearby. Bruce jumped up and met Ben halfway, and they began brawling.

"Holy shit." Clint muttered as Bruce began to pummel Ben. Tony rooted him on in the back, but flinched when the cannon signaling Johnny's death boomed. 

Thor's eyes grew as Brice jumped up, wrapped his arms around Ben's head, and pulled at his head with all the strength he had. 

The snap echoed through the clearing right before the boom of the cannon.

"Well I'll be damned." Natasha muttered. Bruce dashed back over to his friends and stood in front of them. 

"Let's not piss him off." Leo muttered. 

"Agreed." Natasha replied. 

Another cannon boomed as Sif cut off the head of Skye, the young girl from Ten. The remaining tributes decided now was the time to gang up on the careers, and all of the ones nearby began to run at them. 

Clint was proposing they get in on it, but before they could decide to do it, Loki looked and alerted them to the lack of a blazing fire. 

Thor realized they may have gotten all the deaths they needed, gathered up his group, including Leo and Jemma, and ushered them out of the clearing. 

Cannon after cannon boomed as they raced away. And after running for a solid ten minutes, they found a willow grove, and climbed the tree to set up camp. 

 

They all woke up later that night to see who had died earlier. 

Logan's face was the first to appear, and everyone that had run when they had the chance smiled. The next face was Rogue's from District Five, followed by "Rhodey" from Six. Johnny's face lit up the sky next, followed by Ben. 

Scott from Nine was next, along with Skye and Pepper from Ten. 

The last face to appear was that of Bucky from Twelve. 

Thor leaned back into the tree, sending his heart out to Steve and Susan, who had both lost someone very dear to them. He wrapped his arm protectively around his brother and hoped that he wouldn't be next.


	10. Day Two

Thor woke up to the sound of a cry and the boom of a cannon. He looked around and saw Jemma looking over the side of her limb and sobbing. When he looked down he saw Leo’s crumpled form on the ground. 

“What happened?” He asked. She looked back over her shoulder. 

“H-h-he t-tried t-t-t-o lean d-down t-to t-t-talk t-to me b-b-but he fell.” she managed before bursting into tears again. Natasha slipped down onto her branch and wrapped her in a hug, whispering soothing words in her ear. 

“We need to get moving.” Thor said after a moment. “they’ll need to collect his body.” Jemma glared at him. 

“He’s dead! Can’t you be a little more sympathetic?!” She demanded. 

“Jemma, we gave you your moment, and while it’s upsetting he still died quickly and he wouldn’t have felt a thing. It’s time for us to leave here so that they can collect his body and take him home to rest.” He replied softly. After a moment she nodded and they began packing up. 

 

Another cannon boomed and Betty fell to the ground. Bruce charged the tiny girl from Five as Jane turned over Betty’s limp body to pull out the hand-made spear. 

Another cannon boomed a few seconds later signalling the death of Kitty Pryde. 

“Well, this sucks.” Tony muttered, yanking the spear out of Betty’s chest. “Her traps were the best.” 

“Will we be able to get food without her?” Jane asked as Bruce trumped back over to them. 

“Yes, but it will be a helluva lot harder without her.” Tony replied, closing her eyelids. 

“Our childhood friend is dead and the first thing that comes out of your mouths is the fact that getting food will be harder?” Bruce demanded.

“We are sad,” Jane said softly, “But what’s the use in sitting here and bawling our eyes out? It’ll only put us in danger. We’ll need to save our tears for when we won’t be found by other tributes.” Bruce pursed his lips and nodded. 

They each touched her hand and whispered goodbye to her before they walked off. 

 

Susan and Reed sat high in a tree. They started each time the canon boomed, but didn’t bother moving from their spot. Nobody was going to look for them up there yet. They even watched as a few other tributes passed under them, plotting the deaths of the remaining tributes. 

They only came down at the end of the day, when their new-found allies, Storm and Sam, came with food. They discussed how they were going to trap the other tributes without having to confronte them face to face. 

On the other side of the arena, Darcy and Peggy were trying to keep Steve from running out and trying to attack Fandral, who had been responsible for Bucky’s death. 

Thor and Natasha had hidden away Clint, Loki, and Jemma in a cave high up on a cliff and had gone out to track down Grant Ward, who was one of their biggest threats at this point. 

They had found traps that Nat had recognized as his and they hid in a nearby bush, waiting for him or any of the other Careers to come and collect. They waited for three hours before the slim form of Emma Frost arrived to collect a squirrel from it’s trap. They jumped her and she didn’t even have a full second to register what was going on before Thor crushed her head in with his hammer and a cannon boomed. 

They took her pack, which contained multiple squirrels and rabbits, as well as some foraged berries, and ran back towards their camp. Emma’s fellow careers didnt suspect a thing for a few hours, which was more than enough time for Thor and Natasha to get back to their cave and quickly skin and cook their haul. 

Even while they suspected that something had happened to her, they didn’t think that she could have possibly been the one to die. they had suspected that she’d collected the food and run off on her own. They were even planning to use the light of the dead tribute announcement to look for her. Then they saw her face in the sky and their jaws dropped. 

The small group of allies in the cave gave a moment of silence for Betty and Leo when their faces appeared, and let Jemma quietly cried for her best friend. 

 

The tributes from District Three waited until the light faded from the last tribute’s face to leave their camp. They wandered into the woods aways, using the glasses that they’d stolen from the Careers that allowed them to see clearly in the night. 

They had spotted two hooded figures climbing the rocks into a cave nearby, and they were the right size to be Ward and Sif. They arrived underneath the path the two had taken and got to work stringing up wires and rope.


	11. Day Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm going to be honest. this fic isn't fun to write anymore so people are going to start dying quickly so I can just finish it off.

It stormed for three days afterward, making it impossible for the tributes to do anything but stay under cover. On the sixth morning of the Games, the allies climbed back down the cliff face to get moving. Clint lead the way down the path, but saw the wire too late. Natasha yelled at him, and Thor tackled the younger Tributes to the ground as huge wooden spikes flew through the air, triggered by the wire that Clint had stepped on. 

thor looked up to see one sticking out of clint’s back. Natasha rushed to his side as he swayed on his feet. 

“Tasha,” Clint whispered, looking into her eyes, “I messed up. I’m sorry.” he fell into her arms. she caught him just before the cannon boomed. She looked over his shoulder at thor, her eyes tearing up. 

“I’m so sorry.” thor said to her. she dropped to her knees, bringing Clint’s body with her. He climbed off of the other two kids and helped them to their feet. they stared at the bloody spike as Thor walked over to comfort Natasha, who was now sobbing uncontrollably. 

“I’ll kill them.” she choked up. “I’ll kill whoever set this up. I swear!” she screamed her promise. Thor rubbed her shoulders. 

“Nat, we need to get moving.” she nodded and carefully lay Clint on his side. they took the bow and quiver from him and moved on. 

Thor, Loki, and Jemma followed behind Natasha, who had a knife in both hands. 

“She’s scary.” Jemma whispered, clutching at Thor’s wrist. 

“And that’s why she’s our ally.” thor replied. 

They heard the crashing right before a young woman with jet black hair rolled into the path in front of them. she jumped to her feet, an intense look on her face. Natasha held her knives at the ready. the young woman straightened up and stared at the lot of them for a minute. she opened her mouth, but wasn’t able to say anything because Natasha’s knife was in her chest. Natasha followed soon after and began slashing at her until the girl fell and the cannon boomed. 

Jemma and Loki had hidden behind Thor, peeking around at their friend. “Nat?” Loki called timidly as she pulled her knives out. She turned around to look at them, her expression and eyes blank and her face covered in blood. 

“I had planned for Clint to go home.” She admitted, twirling her knives in her hand. “But if he can’t then at least I can.” she began to walk towards them. Thor’s grip tightened around the handle of his hammer. He and the younger two walked backwards. 

“Nat, don’t do this. there’s still a dozen tributes besides us you can’t kill them all on your own.” he pleaded. Nat crouched.

“I’d say watch me, but you’ll be dead before you can.” she growled, launching herself at the trio. thor pushed his friends into the bushes and jumped forward, striking at her with his hammer. He caught her arm, and heard the cracking of her bones. she rolled to the side, hopped to her feet and ran at him again. he grabbed the hand with the knife apologized to her, and crushed her head in. the canon boomed while Thor carefully lay her down on the ground. He looked up at the shaking kids in the bushes. 

“You two okay?” he asked. 

“You killed her.” Jemma squeaked. 

“Either I killed her or she killed all of us.” Thor explained apologetically, slipping the quiver of arrows and the bow over her head. 

“I know, but… she wanted to kill us.” Jemma sobbed. thor carried the quiver over and handed it to Loki. 

“Its what happens to some people.” he explained, helping her out of the bush. 

“Are you two going to turn on me?” she asked. Both boys shook their heads.

“Not if we can help it.” Thor said. “Now come on, let’s get moving.” 

 

On the other side of the arena, Reed and Susan were fast asleep in their tree, their allies speaking in hushed tones on a nearby branch. Storm nodded and used a slightly higher branch to station herself over the two sleeping tributes. 

She used her foot and began to lightly push Susan to the side of the branch. she stopped when Susan shifted a little bit in her sleep, but once she was sure that the girl was still asleep, she gave one last push and the girl tumbled over the side of the branch. Storm monkey bared over to a different branch and gave Reed one little shove. He’d been sleeping on his side, so he went over instantly. 

Storm and Sam watched them both as Reed got skewered on a branch and Susan crashed to the ground. They smiled at each other as two cannons sounded back to back.

 

Peggy and Darcy started when the other two cannons sounded. they wiped blood off their faces, keeping Steve, who had a huge gash in his chest, behind them. Grant Ward stood before them, a sadistic smile on his face. 

“Five already and it’s not even noon.” he said, “Why don’t we round it up to eight.” Darcy took the opportunity to pull out the small contraption she’d made from bits of the metal cornucopia, a dug up mine, and some wire. 

“I think we should be fine with rounding it up to six.” she threw it at him and two spikes stuck into his chest, Peggy threw a rock at it, activating the electricity. Ward collapsed to the, ground spasming uncontrollably.

Peggy dashed over and chopped his head off with a machete. The cannon boomed while Dacry turned off the improvised taser and pulled it out of his chest. 

“That worked way better than I’d thought it would.” She admitted.

“same here.” Steve wheezed, “Can I get some help?” The girls turned their attention to him and examined the deep cut. 

“Steve,” Peggy started, “It’s really bad, I’m honestly surprised you didn’t die right off.” she whispered. Steve nodded. 

“You two leave me some of those poisonous berries you found and move on, might as well make less work for the gamemakers.” Peggy leaned down and gave him a kiss. 

“Since I’m pretty sure you’ve never been kissed before.” she explained with a wink. 

“Okay, ew.” Darcy muttered, pulling out a small handful of nightlock.Peggy gave a half hearted laugh and got to her feet while Steve blinked rapidly. 

“If I’d known that dying would get me kissed I would have done it sooner.” he said seriously. Darcy smacked him upside the head. 

“Boys, I swear.” She muttered, placing the berries in his hand. they said their goodbyes and walked off. Steve’s cannon sounded two minutes later. 

 

Thor found another little cave inside a waterfall along the edge of the arena and shoved his wards inside and took the watch. It was practically impossible for anyone to see into the cave, but Thor wasn’t about to take his chances. And his watch paid off when two figures moved towards the water. He tensed and had Loki and Jemma hide behind a boulder further inside the cave. 

He backed up as the two figures jumped through the cold water with a squeal. Thor readied himself to attack, and the two girls looked up at him. It took a moment to register he was there, and they both froze. 

Thor recognized them as the tributes from Twelve. The two girls knew that they may have been able to take on Ward together, but Thor was bigger, older, stronger, and better trained and so more likely to kill them before they could say “home.” 

“Please don’t hurt us.” Darcy pleaded. Thor dropped his hammer. 

“Promise you won’t hurt us and you two can stay here for the night.” He said, motioning for the fourteen year olds to come out of hiding. the girls breathed a sigh of relief and promised. 

 

that night they shared a wild dog that Darcy had managed to take down earlier. they were in the middle of their meal when they heard a crackling throughout the arena. 

“Attention tributes.” Caesar’s voice echoed throughout the cave and the entire arena. “there has been a slight change in the rules. We did a quick headcount and found that the remaining tributes are in groups of two or three from their districts. Due to the fact that there were twice as many tributes, we decided there may be twice as many victors. But, they must be from your district. if the remaining two tributes happen to be from two different districts, then the one victor rule will still apply. thank you for your time and good luck!” 

 

Loki leaned into his brother who wrapped his arm around his younger brother’s shoulders, and back home in District Two, Frigga breathed a sigh of relief. Sam and Storm hugged and laughed in their makeshift tree fort. Peggy and Darcy squealed and giggled, falling onto their backs. Sif and Fandral grinned at each other over their fire. Bruce and Tony tackled each other and hooted their excitement. 

However, the two extra girls- Jane and Jemma- began to shake. they knew that they were the odd ones out, and that their lives were now on the line unless someone else from their district died. 

Thor and Loki did what they could to comfort Jemma, and the boys from Three did the same for Jane, but both knew that the likelihood that they’d come out alive had already been slim, but now it was almost nonexistent. 

Later that night they all looked out to see the faces of those that had passed. Loki bit his lip as Clint and Natasha’s faces flashed in the sky, even though nobody was really sad to see Ward go. Reed and Susan were next, and the tributes were all glad that Susan had gone with Reed so that she wasn’t running around risking the lives of everyone in the arena. the girl that Natasha had killed, Melinda May from District Nine was next. and bringing up the rear was Steve. 

the light finally dimmed from the sky and they ducked back inside their cave.


	12. Day Seven

Thor and Loki woke up the next morning to find all three girls were gone. They checked their bags and saw everything was still there. the girls had just left and teamed up. Loki wished he’d been able to say goodbye to his friend, but they knew it was probably for the better. 

All five groups began to hunt for each other, ready to go home. thor and Loki tried to focus on taking out Sam or Storm from ten, which would give Jemma an opening to survive with the remaining tribute, as well as Fandral and Sif. However, the tributes from one and three considered everyone else to be their enemies while Peggy, Darcy, and Jemma were just going to try and avoid getting killed, knowing their best strategy was to get the others alone one at a time and ambush them.

They had come across a string of snares that Jemma had recognized as Sam’s, and so hid in the bushes near one, saying goodbye to the girls before lying in wait.

Storm separated herself from Sam to gather some food while he hunted. Jemma waited until Storm had passed her hiding spot before she headed back up the path towards the camp. 

Darcy and Peggy had set up a small trap near one of the snares Storm had set up. they had strung up a wired noose on top of loose rolling gravel. they hid the noose in some vines and hid in a nearby tree to watch their trap.

Three hours later Storm fell into the trap.the noose slid around her neck and yanked her off her feet. they didn’t anticipate her twisting in it and suffocating to death before their eyes. once the cannon boomed.

she arrived at Sams’s camp while he was skinning some animals. she was shaking, not just for theatrics but because she’d been walking alone for an hour and had been scared to death that someone would find her. 

“S-sam?” she called timidly. He looked up at her and smiled. 

“Jemma, what’s up? I saw that your other half died, I’m so sorry.” He said, taking in her terror. 

“Yeah, listen, I was wondering if I could hang around with your and Storm since we’re all from the same district.” she asked. Sam shrugged. 

“I’m cool with it, but Storm’s out gathering food, when she comes back we’ll make a decision, but you can sit here with me until she gets back.” she thanked him and sat down on a log next to him, picking up a knife to help him clean his catch.

 

Another storm rolled in that afternoon, no doubt some sick humour from the gamemakers upon the only tribute death of the day. Sam had told Jemma that Storm had probably taken cover from the storm and that she could stay with him until she got back. but neither of them remotely expected that Storm had been the one to die earlier.

Despite the storm, Bruce, Jane, and Tony rushed around the arena, setting up traps for the other tributes. 

 

thor and Loki came across the space that the District three tributes had hidden in the first night, covered the top with palm fronds, and hid inside, despite the muddy ground. 

“Thor,” Loki started, staring up atht eh water leaking through one frond, “Do you think we’ll be able to go home?” he asked. 

“Of course.” thor said, pulling his brother closer for warmth. “I’m here, and once we can take out the other Careers nothing will get in our way.” loki smiled at him and went to sleep. 

Both boys were asleep when Storm’s face lit up the sky. Sam and Jemma’s jaws dropped seeing their fellow tribute was dead. sam’s first thought was that the careers must have found her, and decided that they would be his next target.


	13. Final Day

The tributes from three had snuck into Sam and Jemma’s fort with handmade springs and more wooden spikes. they quietly set up the trap above them, tying the trigger string to Jemma’s wrist before leaving. ten minutes later, Jemma rolled over and a dozen sharpened wooden spikes skewered them. the other tributes jolted from their sleep as the two cannons went off. 

the storm quickly faded ten minutes later, and the sun came out, signalling to the tributes that it was time to wake up. 

 

The Gamemakers decided that it was time to add another twist, and created some nasty mutations and placed them on the edge of the arena, circling the tributes as they began hunting. 

 

Screams echoed through the arena an hour after the rain stopped. thor and Loki listened as a hair raising howl sounded and they heard growling and primal snarling followed by three cannons. Another set of screams came from just behind them, and they turned to see Peggy and Darcy running toawrds them, followed by a stampede of horse sized hounds. 

thor and Loki took off. they wanted to help the girls, but they knew that would only get hurt. 

the stampeding sound got louder, as did the snarls and howls and barks coming from the demonic hounds. 

Just when they thought they were going to get caught, they found the cornucopia, which had been built back up during the night after it had been exploded on the first day. Sif and Fandral were already on top of the large metal horn, but the other four tributes knew that they’d be better off facing the tributes than the forty some hounds surrounding them. 

the four boys and girls put on a final sprint and made it to the cornucopia, thor threw the girls up first, feeling guilty for using them as bait for the careers. then he threw up loki while the girls were busy fighting, Thor barely made it up to the top before the hounds. One caught his calf in his mouth, but Loki and Darcy helped pull him up. Fandral was busy spasming on the top of the cornucopia, the makeshift taser stuck to his chest. 

thor looked up in time to see Sif take Peggy by the throat and throw her over the side and into the jaws of the hounds. they dealt with her ungodly screams as the hounds tore into her. Sif snatched the taser off of fandrals chest and threw it into the hounds. 

the canon boomed, and the careers glare at them. Fandral and Sif launched themself at the remaining three. Loki took out the bow and moved to a higher spot on the cornucopia while Darcy took a beating from Sif and Thor blocked fandral’s sword. 

His aim was off on the first shot and he accidentally killed Darcy. Sif grinned and pushed the girl off the cornucopia, taking in the sight of the untrained tribute. Loki blanched and reached for his throwing knives, but Sif was too fast. she pinned him down and began carving at him while Fandral began to gain ground. 

He slashed thor across the chest, and the bigger boy fell to his knees, clutching his chest. He thought that he had seen Sif fall over the side since she and Darcy had been about the same size, and thought that if he could finish of Fandral then Loki could easily take out Darcy. 

He swept his hammer across Fandral’s knees, knocking the other tribute onto his ass, then he jumped and caved in the boy’s head with his hammer. the cannon boomed and Thor fell to his side, watching blood trickle out of his chest. 

Then he heard Loki’s panicked cry and turned over to see Sif cutting patterns on his brother’s cheeks, tears in his eyes. thor snarled and felt another burst of adrenaline. 

He jumped to his feet and charged Sif with a roar. She turned around, turned the knife around in her hand and thre it at him. It burried itself hilt deep in his abdomen and he collapsed with a gasp of pain. Loki screamed his brother’s name and Sif pulled another knife out of the sheath on her thigh. Thor managed to get to his feet, and ran at her again, not leaving her enough time to throw a finishing blow. He brought the hammer into her side with all the force he could muster, feeling her ribs give way. 

she screamed as she slid over the side. She tried to drag Loki with her, but thor used the rest of his strngth to pull Loki to the cornucopia with him while Sif fell to the hounds. 

Loki turned to thor, who had passed out and gasped at the sight of the deep cut that stretched from his right shoulder to his left hip. Loki noticed that no cannons had gone off and jumped to his feet, drawing out a knife and leaned over the side of the horn. He took aim and Sif’s chest. He threw the knife with all the strength he could muster, and was satisfied to see it sink into her heart. he heard a cannon sound and rushed to his brother, pressing his fingers to thor’s neck, he felt his brother’s faint pulse and breathe a sigh of relief. 

the hounds dispersed and a hover craft appeared above them to retrieve the victors.


	14. Home

thor woke up three weeks later. Loki was curled up beside him on the bed, fast asleep. He wrapped his arm around his brother, glad that they were both alive. Heimdall and one of the doctors walked in, smiling at him. 

“We were wondering if you’d ever wake up.” Heimdall laughed. “I think I’ll take your brother back to his room so that he can get some better sleep.” thor nodded and let his brother go. Heimdall slid his arms under Loki’s shoulders and knees to pick him up, but Loki’s hand closed on thor’s blankets. 

“Wanna wait for him ta wake up.” he murmered sleepily. thor smiled and took his hand, which immediatly relaxed. 

“I’m okay Loki.” the younger boy let go with a yawn and Heimdall picked him up as he muttered something. They walked out and Maria smiled at Thor from the doorway. 

“So, you’ll be fine once we can get you back to eating solid foods, but no matter what we tried, the wound from Fandral wouldn’t heal correctly and the scar won’t go away. but it’ll be covered by your shirt so nobody will know it’s there until they see you without your shirt off.” thor pretty much ignored the rest of what the doctor had to say, nodding continuously as he droned on and on until an Avox came in with some broth. 

 

He was able to go back to their apartment a week later, and was greeted by Loki, who he had to drag around the entire day because he was scared that his big brother was going to disappear. 

The next few days where they were named victors and interviewed were blurs of people, beauty equipment and fancy clothes.

four days later they were on their way home. thor fingered his scar while Loki curled up in a chair across from him. Thor couldn’t help but notice the bags and bruises under his eyes. He’d been woken up by his brother’s nightmares and screams the last few nights, and knew that they’d been going on since they’d gotten out. 

“Hey,” he said softly, his brother looked up at him with baleful eyes, “Everything will be okay now. No more fighting for our lives, and you won’t have to deal with training anymore. the last thing we’ll have to do is the victory tour and that’s it for a long time. There are plenty of victors to go to the next games as Mentors.” Loki nodded. 

“It’s just, Clint and Leo and Jemma and-” 

“Hey, don’t beat yourself up about it.” thor leaned over and put his hands on his brother’s shoulders. “They would have ended up dead anyway. Even at the end, only two people could have won. And now we get to go home and rest and never have to worry about going through this again.” 

Loki nodded. “Yeah, you’re right.” Thor stood up and gave him a hug. 

“You’ll be okay, it’ll take time but you’ll be okay.” Loki nodded and Thor felt wet spots grow on his chest. “It’s okay, you just go ahead and cry buddy.” Loki clutched at his arm and began to sob uncontrollably. 

It took a bit but Loki finally cried it all out. he smiled at his brother with red eyes and hiccupped while he smiled. 

“I’m just glad we both got out.” thor smiled back and they hugged each other tightly. 

“Me too.” 

 

They arrived home the next morning to a huge crowd. they walked onto the platform and were tackled by their mother. Loki clung to her while thor pat her back awkwardly. 

“Mom, you can let go now, we’re fine.” Thor assured her. she pulled away and smiled at both of them. 

“I know, I just wanted to make sure.” She hugged them again and gave them both a kiss on the cheek before letting the film crews have at them.


End file.
